Wine that got you into wine?

Ian Hoare scribed:

Chateau Lafitte-Rothschild.

That is one of my absolute favorite wines, and arguably among the best in the world - but there's only one "t" in that particular Lafite.

OTOH, Château Smith Haut-Lafitte spells it differently - which I believe is the point Ian was making, although perhaps more subtly. :^/

Tom S

Salut/Hi Ed Jay,

le/on Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:33:02 -0800, tu disais/you said:-

A great wine, but my astonishment was reserved for the Moutton of the same year.;-)

ATB Ian

Tom S scribed:

I'm probably still under the influence. :-)

Ian Hoare scribed:

I can't remember drinking the '59 Moutton. What I do remember is falling in love with the Lafite and buying it every time I was able to. And, I remember paying the outrageous price of...$71/btl.

"Ed Jay" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Of course, price differentials between ordinary and great wine were far less in older days. I've also a list from 1927 showing unspecified St.Emilion NV at 0.45USD and Ch.Latour 1916 at 1.45USD... The Petrus 1916 was 0.95USD. That says something about real value differentials - there's simply no justification in paying 100times more for a grand wine than for an ordinary one, other than snob value. Anders

Anders wrote on Sat, 25 Feb 2006 09:56:16 +0100:

AT> "Ed Jay" skrev i melding AT> news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com... ??>> Ian Hoare scribed: ??>>

??>> I can't remember drinking the '59 Moutton. What I do ??>> remember is falling in love with the Lafite and buying it ??>> every time I was able to. And, I remember paying the ??>> outrageous price of...$71/btl. -- AT> 71$? USD? That must have been a late price (in the late AT> 70'ies?) I have a copy of a Norwegian list from 1965, AT> unfortunately without the Lafite, but including such items AT> as Ch. d'Yquem 1960 at 7USD and Ch. Rieussec 1959 at AT> 3.75USD. Alcohol was, and is, heavily taxed in Norway, so AT> deduct about 30% to get international prices...

The price ratio for fine to acceptable wine is very interesting. However, I thought it might be interesting to quote a few US CPI figures: ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt

1970: 3.92, 1980: 8.32, 1990: 13.20, 2000: 17.39, 2005: 19.88.

On a basis of the 1965 CPI (3.18), the 1960 Chateau d'Yquem would be 43.76 in present USD: quite a bargain if you accept the stratospheric prices that people will pay!

James Silverton Potomac, Maryland.

Clos Du Val CS 1996 Travaglini Gattinara Beringer Knights Valley CS 1996 Chateau Margaux 1994

I got into wine in the mid 90s, these were among the 1st quality wines I had and they left a lasting impression on me, especially the Bordeaux, which I still recall smelled like a basket of flowers when I put the glass to my nose.

Anders Tørneskog scribed:

I paid $71 in 1974, at the local gourmet shop (Chalet Gourmet). It was on the menu at my favorite restaurant for $110.

Ch. d'Yquem for only $7? Is that a typo? (Please...tell me it's a typo!) ;-)

Indeed, the world as we knew it, has ended... :-)

I respectfully disagree. The '59 Lafite is a good example of why I disagree, as is the '82 Moutton, etc., etc.

I certainly do agree that some wines aren't worth the bloated prices, save snob appeal (Screaming Eagle is the first to pop into my mind.).